Prince Hall Grand Lodge Lends Artifacts to Morgan State University to Preserve History and Share Legacy

As part of an effort to preserve its history while making its legacy more accessible to others, The Most Worshipful^TM Prince Hall Grand Lodge F.& A.M. of Maryland and Its Jurisdiction, Inc. has entered a memorandum of understanding with Morgan State University to house select artifacts in the Earl S. Richardson Library’s Beulah M. Davis Special Collections: Davis Room. The collaboration between the Grand Lodge and the University offers students, researchers, and Marylanders, in general, an opportunity to learn about the history, contributions and significance of Maryland’s Prince Hall masonry. The agreement was cemented with a signing ceremony held at Morgan’s library this past fall semester in the Clarence Blount room.

Selected among the artifacts available for review at Morgan is literature, including the book “Maryland Men of Masonry: The Most Worshipful United Grand Lodge 1825-1925,” which celebrates the Grand Lodge’s first 100 years; historic documents; and on loan from the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, wax figures of noted Maryland Prince Hall Grand Lodge masters Willard W. Allen and Samuel T. Daniels.

 “This joint collaboration between the Grand Lodge and Morgan State University should serve [as] a model for other jurisdictions to work with historically Black colleges and universities in their states to preserve not only masonic history, but Black history,” said R.W. Seymour E. Chambers, MPS grand historian for Prince Hall Grand Lodge and chief judicial officer for Morgan’s Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities. “The historical relationship between Maryland Prince Hall masons and Morgan is a story worthy of our understanding and appreciation as we are inextricably linked in the struggle for the liberation, education and self-determination of our community. Our hope in turning over our valued artifacts is that others will benefit from exposure to this history.”

While the founding of both institutions occurred in the 1800s, the University’s relationship with the Grand Lodge dates to the 1950s and 60s when Morgan students protested the segregated Northwood Shopping Center across from the campus. Many of the student protestors were jailed and could not afford the bail money for their release. It was Sam Daniels, the Grand Lodge’s M.W.P.G.M. Emeritus, who pledged and provided the bail money for any student that wanted the assistance. In the mid 1990s, while under the leadership of Marion Curtis Bascum, a past grand chaplain for the Lodge, and director of the University Memorial Chapel at Morgan received a $80,000 gift from the Grand Lodge to use for Chapel renovations, ensuring that students could continue to have a spiritual home on the campus.

 In further support of the University’s educational mission, for more than two decades, the Grand Lodge has sponsored a youth day during one of Morgan’s home football games, bringing hundreds of young people to the campus. Additionally, the Grand Lodge has provided more than $250,000 in scholarships to the University’s athletic department.

 “The relationship Morgan has fostered within Maryland’s African American community spans more than 150 years. And within that period, the Methodist Episcopal denomination and the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Maryland have become equally invested in the continued advancement of the University,” said Ida E. Jones, Ph.D. university archivist at Morgan. “The Grand Lodge’s support of Maryland’s largest HBCU is ever present on the campus of Morgan and amplified by notable contributions to the University’s continued success. The acquisition of The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge’s archival collection is an extension of their contributions and a furtherance of the relationship between two historic institutions. We look forward to sharing this history with others.”